It's just the weapon they chose. With that being said, I looked through enough of the plagiarism examples that I think they have some legitimacy. They go beyond sloppy citation practices in many cases.

I have a saying that I apply to politicians, but that I also think is appropriate for people in academic leadership positions: "Be perfect. It's not that hard." I don't mean that in terms of never making a mistake in any way, but rather that your enemies are going to dig up any ethical lapse that you have and attack it like crazy. There is sadly a double standard, because I'm sure there are plenty of other university leaders that aren't black women have done something inappropriate and gotten away with it, but that doesn't mean plagiarism is ok. So, if you think you want to move into leadership (and Gay clearly tracked in that direction very early on), just don't have any ethical lapses your entire career. Be perfect. I'm not sure if I want to go into academic leadership in the future, but I've been very careful all along to avoid those kinds of missteps for wherever my career might take me.

My hope is that Harvard is able to find a new President who will continue the same mission and piss off the likes of Rufo just as much, but without the skeletons in the closet to attack.